Update 2019-02-26: Please note that the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) American Express Card Canada is no longer available. It has been replaced by the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card. Get the details here!

Introduction

Between now and December 11, 2017, you can earn a 30% bonus when transferring participating hotel points into Aeroplan!

We see this offer a few times a year, with the most recent promotion offering a 35% bonus (expired at the end of summer). There are a number of qualifying hotel programs to choose from, though most will provide poor value on transfers, due to unfavourable transfer ratios, with the exception of Starwood Preferred Guest.

While American Express Membership Rewards can always be transferred to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio, it should be noted that they are not eligible for this promotion.

How To Transfer Hotel Points To Aeroplan

The transfer process is simple, and needs to be completed from your hotel program account.

There’s no registration required to participate in this promotion, and the terms and conditions state that bonus points will post 4-6 weeks after the end of the promotional period, though I suspect they will post much quicker than that.

One good opportunity to take advantage of this deal is by transferring Starwood Preferred Guest points. SPG always offers a 5,000 mile bonus on each transfer of 20,000 points, so during this promotion a 20,000 SPG point transfer would net 32,500 Aeroplan miles. You can transfer up to 79,999 SPG points in a 24 hour period, so if you plan to transfer more than 60,000 SPG points in total, make sure to do it over a couple of days in increments of 20,000 to a maximum of 60,000/24hr to get the most value out of the transfer!

While Marriott is also a participating hotel, sadly the ‘hotel+air’ packages are excluded, which is a first for Aeroplan (American Airlines excluded these packages from their recent promotion also). The regular transfer rate for Marriott to Aeroplan is 5:1, so converting them directly to Aeroplan offers little value, even with the bonus.

If you have a lot of Marriott points and are wishing to redeem them for miles, it could make sense to first transfer them to SPG (3:1 ratio) and then convert to Aeroplan, or take advantage of the ‘hotel+air’ package without the transfer bonus to earn miles and a 7-night hotel stay certificate. Check out our course on the Marriott Rewards program to learn more!

Is Transferring Your Hotel Points To Aeroplan Worth It?

Starwood Preferred Guest is one of my favourite reward programs, and I generally like to save them for aspirational hotel redemptions, or for transfers to airline miles that are tougher to earn in Canada, such as Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. A few things to consider before making a transfer:

• Bonus points will post 4-6 weeks after the promotional end date. While I’ve certainly seen points post faster than this, I wouldn’t bank on it
• Minimum equivalent of 5,000 Aeroplan miles needed to be eligible for promotion
• Transfers are not instant. Starwood to Aeroplan transfers will take a few business days, at a minimum, so be flexible with your travel dates for best results when redeeming your miles.
• Aeroplan is ending their relationship with Air Canada in 2020, so if you plan to take advantage of this promotion, make sure it’s for travel in the near future.
• Aeroplan imposes fuel surcharges on some carriers, which can take away from the overall value of the redemption.

Even with some restrictions, there are still a lot of great Aeroplan redemptions available! For Example, you could use 150,000 Aeroplan miles to fly roundtrip from North America to Asia on EVA Air – one of the best business class products in the world!

Or for 215,000 miles, you could fly around the world in first class, including a segment on Asiana in their terrific fully-enclosed first class suite!

Need some more SPG points? Consider applying for The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express to earn 50,000 American Express points after spending $1,500 in the first three months of membership. Update 2019-02-26: Please note that the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) American Express Card Canada is no longer available. It has been replaced by the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card. Get the details here!